Category: Best Short Film ARFF Berlin 2022

Original Film Title: Пряный

Director’s Name: Anton Ryumin

Writer’s Name: Anton Ryumin

Producer: Anastasia Grundmane, Anton Ryumin

Country of Origin: Latvia

Country of Filming: Latvia

Language: Russian

Runtime: 6 minutes 12 seconds

Film Description:

In the center of the plot is the director – Pryaniy, who is also the leading actor in the once popular theatre, which is going through hard times. Trying to save the theatre he invites a young eccentric film actor, hoping to attract the audience once again.

Original Film Title: House of the Unholy

Director’s Name: Daniel Merlot

Writer’s Name: Daniel Merlot, Michael Laburt, Oso Jackson

Producer: Daniel Merlot

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: Thailand

Language: English

Runtime: 15 minutes

Film Description:

A blood thirsty Princess hunts down the last of the Indigo Elders for the immortal elixir inside his heart that will grant her the power to reign over the Kingdom for an Eternity!

Original Film Title: Catisfaction

Director’s Name: Andre Marques Almeida

Writer’s Name: Andre Marques Almeida

Country of Origin: Portugal

Runtime: 6 minutes 35 seconds

Film Description:

This is a story about a man and a cat. No sorry… A man, a cat and a dream. Wait… probably a man, a cat, a dream and a vespa!
It’s about relationships and how they can shape our life forever.
But it’s also about a weird character and his cat who claims his way to the eternity.
Maybe it’s just a story about a man and a cat. But a good one.

Original Film Title: Dream the Past in the Depth of Doors

Director’s Name: Xin Gaosheng

Country of Origin: China

Country of Filming: China

Language: Chinese

Runtime: 10 minutes 44 seconds

Film Description:

The 70-year-old Huwa knows the mandate of Heaven. His daily routine is to take his wife Pianer to see a doctor. He also raises a few lambs to get by.
One day, an old fellow villager, who returned the village to live a farm life, died unexpectedly because he was not rescued in time. His son and grandson, who were working far away from their hometown, were not able to pay their last respects. The hearsay that “they did not drop a tear for the old man’s death” made Huwa and Pianer worried about their twilight years.

Original Film Title: Понякога сънувам, че умирам

Director’s Name: Zlatan Dekov

Writer’s Name: Zlatan Dekov

Producer: Zlatan Dekov

Country of Origin: Bulgaria

Country of Filming: Bulgaria

Language: Bulgarian

Runtime: 19 minutes 8 seconds

Film Description:

The film examines the impact of social media on adolescents through the eyes of a young girl. She isolates herself from the world through her smartphone which consumes her entire existence. Comparing her own life with those of famous girls on social networks, she feels increasingly insignificant and unhappy. Somewhere between the real and digital worlds is a dream world where she sometimes dies. These three realities intertwine in a surreal nightmare she cannot escape. The search for salvation passes through post-apocalyptic scenes around Bulgaria, from Sofia to the seaside, and at the end of the path is the culminating catharsis of freedom.

Original Film Title: DISAPPEARED GIRL

Director’s Name: Bai Liu

Writer’s Name: Bai Liu

Producer: Lin Xing

Country of Origin: China

Country of Filming: China

Language: Mandarin Chinese

Runtime: 13 minutes 56 seconds

Film Description:

A year ago, Professor Li, who was nearly 50, quit his job and lived in Taohua village. He went for a walk along the river everyday apart from staying in his house. He never drank water from the village and ordered a large amount of mineral water from the store every week, so he was familiar with the store owner Chen Wu. He was very concerned about Chen Wu’s health and often advised Chen Wu to drink more water instead of coke. Chen Wu’s health condition was getting worse and worse, and people died intermittently in the village. Under the depressing atmosphere, the one person who could bring happiness to the villagers was a silly woman. No one knew who the silly woman was and where she came from. People only knew that she had a brain problem and had followed Chen Wu to the village….

Original Film Title: Die Scherben unserer Liebe

Director’s Name: Yasemin Hickl, Friedrich Kober

Writer’s Name: Yasemin Hickl, Martin Kober

Producer: Yasemin Hickl, Martin Kober

Country of Origin: Austria

Country of Filming: Austria

Language: German, Turkish

Runtime: 24 minutes 34 seconds

Film Description:

Violence in marriage, physically or psychologically – unnoticed by outsiders – regardless of nationality, culture, social class and gender: for many people it is part of their everyday lives.
For various reasons, separating victims is difficult or impossible, whether it’s financial dependence or fear of the unknown.

Original Film Title: Someone You Loved

Director’s Name: Elly Zhou

Writer’s Name: Elly Zhou

Producer: Emma Cai

Country of Origin: China

Country of Filming: China

Language: Chinese

Runtime: 16 minutes 47 seconds

Film Description:

In a village of northeast China, Liu Jianguo, a 60 year-old man, is attracted by Xiufen(45) less than three months after his wife died. However, LIU Jianguo dares not tell anyone about it, even his son. During the Spring Festival, in the face of a saying that “dead relatives can return home in the first year” spread all over the village, between LIU’s son who believes that his mother would return and Xiufen who urges him to get married, LIU worries about his dead wife’s dissatisfaction at seeing him start a new life, and hesitates to marry Xiufen for various reasons. Under great psychological pressure, LIU finally decides to do something for the current situation. However, the development of things is different from what LIU thought. In this process, LIU’s complex thought has gradually become clearer.

Original Film Title: Parchiyaan

Director’s Name: Chandrakant Singh

Writer’s Name: Chandrakant Singh

Producer: Chandrakant Singh

Country of Origin: India

Country of Filming: India

Language: Hindi

Runtime: 34 minutes 20 seconds

Film Description:

its a love story of a couple who never met . how they fall in love and will they will meet ever is the crux of narration.

Original Film Title: Valerian

Director’s Name: Riccardo Di Matteo, Elias Engels

Writer’s Name: Riccardo Di Matteo, Elias Engels

Producer: Riccardo Di Matteo, Elias Engels

Country of Origin: Germany

Country of Filming: Germany

Language: German

Runtime: 16 minutes 20 seconds

Film Description:

Valerian is a painter that helps his fataly ill girlfriend doing suicide, because she wants decide when to die. This experience makes him go through an unusual development.